


Jetstream

by Thundercatroar



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: 707 Clipper service with style, A petroliana and car collector's fantasy story, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Jet Set Stewardess life, Late 1960's early 1970's AU, Other, Piedmont Airlines with a dash of Pan Am and a sprinkle of Alitalia to taste, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:00:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26824783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thundercatroar/pseuds/Thundercatroar
Summary: Ambassador, model, hostess, Korra has one of the most coveted jobs in the world for a young Omega during this time, a stewardess. As a rule she never dates the passengers, but she never had a decent reason to stray from that guideline... until now.
Relationships: Bolin/Opal (Avatar), Hiroshi Sato/Yasuko Sato, Korra/Asami Sato, Lin Beifong/Kya II, Senna/Tonraq (Avatar)
Kudos: 50





	Jetstream

A large, overflowing vase of moon lilies, an oversized box of assorted gourmet chocolates, and a soft, luxurious, grey, and white ticked otter koala coat overtook half the table in the women's changing room of Four Nations Airlines.

While the owner of said items stood in front of a full-length mirror, she began putting the final touches on her uniform, tying the knot of a white cravat around her neck to tuck down the front of her royal blue blazer. Behind her, a petite young girl whom she'd befriended when she started working two months prior, pulled on her own skirt, wondering as she zipped and buttoned the back of it up, "How in the world do you **do** it, Korra?"

Affixing the smart blue and white trimmed pillbox hat to her lightly sprayed bubble cut hair and pinning it into place, seasoned veteran Korra, who had been helping the rookie during her infancy as a stewardess, asked in an exasperated tone, "Do _what_?"

Choosing not to mention her many service awards, Opal sighed and rolled her eyes at Korra's reflection. "Get so many people to fawn over you." Her green eyes widened and she flung up her hands. "This is the third time that one of our passengers has sent you gifts in a month."

Korra motioned to the table laden with extravagant offerings, dismissing them as easily as they were given. "I don't know, but I really wish that they wouldn't." She waved her hand to the side with an exasperated sigh. "I tell each and every one of them up front when they ask that I don't date the passengers, so it's not like I'm leading them on or anything."

Opal giggled. "Your words of protest don't seem to be working well; in fact, it seems to just make them more determined to win you over."

Korra shrugged. "The way I look at it, _I_ certainly don't ask for any of this stuff, so if they waste their money on me, it's on _their_ wallet, and not _my_ conscience."

Opal waved demonstratively towards her friend's unwanted bounty. "Well, why not go out with some of them? From the looks of that spread and some of the others I've seen, it appears as though you'd be well taken care of and have a good time." She gave Korra a chastising look. "If anything, you could have at least kept the car!"

Korra answered prudently, with maturity and wisdom beyond her twenty-four years. "We're in the air almost constantly, and we live within walking distance of our apartment, what do I need with a car?"

When their friend Xiu got married, she and Kya missed her, but Korra was also worried sick that she and her best friend wouldn't find a third roommate to help with expenses. The cost of living in Republic City was ridiculously high, even with three people chipping in, and after being responsible for one-half apiece of the rent on their tiny apartment for a few months, they both would have settled for a hog monkey if it had some money. Thankfully, for them, at the time, Opal had just graduated flight service school and was put on their team thanks in part to the recommendation of her aunt who also worked for the company.

Normally people frowned upon nepotism in the ranks, but Opal never mentioned the Beifong name boastfully, and she put in the hard work required of the rest of them without complaint. After getting to know her, they hit it off quite well, well enough to offer her the benefit of having a place to crash during layovers in town without having to bear the entire financial burden of a dwelling on her own. "Even though it _was_ a gorgeous ride, I couldn’t afford to keep it even if I wanted to,” Opal eyed Korra with suspicion which the latter chose to conveniently ignore. “Besides, it wouldn't have been right for me to keep the thing _anyway_."

Korra then imparted a bit of wisdom earned from experience with a cocked eyebrow, her blue eyes looking upwards. "I know that you always try to look for the best in people, Opal, it’s one of your best qualities, but do you actually think that Prince Wu of the Earth kingdom is going to have a brand new, fully-loaded Sato DragonFire convertible delivered to our hub out of the goodness of his heart?" Opal thought a moment and was going to counter that the alpha was indeed a goof, but seemed to be genuinely sweet underneath all the annoying posturing, but Korra interrupted her thought. "Would a middle aged man from out of town give a twenty four year old girl a thousand Yuan fur coat, a box of chocolates imported from earth kingdom, and a huge vase of rare, sub-arctic flowers without expecting something in return?"

Opal's naiveté refreshing in a time such as theirs, the age of turning on, dropping out, and free love, she stated innocently while glancing at the table, "Well, maybe they have a crush on you, and they're just trying to be nice?"

Korra scoffed, holding up a small slip of paper that was attached to the red ribbon around the box of chocolates with what looked like a hotel letterhead, a room number scribbled on it between her middle and index finger. "Or maybe they think I'm just some dumb water tribe girl who's gonna' put out because they bought me a bunch of stuff." Balling and throwing the note away in the trashcan to her side, Korra demonstrated with a dramatic sweep of her left arm and hand as she added, "I'm pretty sure I saw the guy that gave me this stuff remove a wedding band and put it in his pocket before spreading on the fake charm too."

An attractive, but much older co-worker walked in and placed her travel bag down on the floor next to them, opened her locker, and began changing for their shared shift. Nodding upwards, she acknowledged her roommates as they bickered good-naturedly.

Though she made no hint of it, Kya had news that affected them all, not just her, and she didn’t know how she was going to break it to Korra and Opal. Senior attendant of their crew, Kya expected this for some time, and frankly, she was surprised it hadn’t come before now, but still; it didn’t mean that it wasn’t hurtful when her time finally came.

She was the last member of the old guard to get her letter, and though she was sad this adventure was nearly at an end, it was a relief, though a small one, to finally know her termination date. Batting away the beginnings of tears, she chose to pretend everything was okay for just a little longer and secreted the long white envelope from corporate in her locker, turning to smile at her dear friends. "Hey, kids, what‘s going on?” Eyeing them, she stated, "This conversation seems especially interesting, what hot gossip have I missed most of again, today?"

Opal turned her attention to their senior, Kya, and informed with no malice, "Korra's unintentional in-flight charming of the vast majority of our customers, number one."

A member of the first official graduating class of stewardesses, Korra loved Kya, and when she was a pup just starting out like Opal, generously, Kya took it upon herself to give her the benefit of her many years of experience as an air hostess for the company. Her other roommate, they got along quite well, and had much in common, including them both hailing from the southern water tribe, but as Kya snickered at Korra's discomfort, the young woman's smile soured when the elder added to the ridiculous conversation instead of trying to stop, or at very least, ignore it.

Gripping her hands in front of her chest, Kya looked upwards as she said wistfully, "Oh, and let's not forget about glamorous rock stars immortalizing us in song." To Korra's chagrin, and Opal's perverse entertainment, Kya began singing the lyrics to a popular tune that had been number one on the international charts for weeks, the rest of the women in the room joining in on the chorus.

" _Korra's sweet eyes shine like heaven divine, true love piercing my heart like a spirit vine…._."

Korra closed her eyes and took a deep breath in order to collect herself, knowing that it wouldn't do to throw a fit as she had the last time they serenaded her with the annoying lyrics.

Kya would be entertained to the point of ecstasy, Opal would nearly wet herself in glee, and it would simply egg everyone else on.

"How many times do I have tell everyone that _stupid_ song is **not** about me?" With flared nostrils, Korra turned to Kya. "You of all people should know that you can't swing a dead owl cat down south without hitting _somebody_ named Korra!"

Kya simply gave Korra a wry grin. "Yeah, yeah, pop _princess_ ,” Korra glared at Kya nastily, her lower lip jutted forward in a defiant pout that was more cute than threatening. “We’ve heard it _allllll_ before; so will you come off it, please?" Playfully, she pointed at Korra with her index finger. "That song is _so_ about you, and what's more, your face is redder than a fire nation rug, so you know it too."

Opal chimed in, "Kuvira flirted with you during the entire flight back to Yi, kissed your hand as she left when we landed, and then sent you front row tickets and backstage passes to her show when she played Republic City last!"

Korra rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. “Oh, I’m well aware of that last bit, because Cap and I had to be the responsible ones while the rest of you indulged.”

Opal shrugged. “Well someone had to be the grown-up, and you don’t like to drink anyway.”

Kya nodded with a smile remembering the huge bottle of fire whiskey, and those funny shaped, hand rolled cigarettes the roadies shared with them backstage before the program started. "Oh, _yeah_ , that was a **great** concert!" Korra’s eyebrow rose as Kya smiled at the blurred memories, ending happily, "I barely remember _any_ of it. Even Lin had a good time, and you know how far up _that_ stick goes."

No better opportunity for revenge, Korra muttered with a shit-eating grin from the corner of her mouth, "I think you do _better_."

As Kya glanced at Korra and surreptitiously rubbed her middle finger on her forehead, Korra chortled and Opal ended her excellent argument. "Lest we forget, oh shining one, when her new album came out with that song not about you on it, Kuvira had an autographed copy delivered to you with a special message and her personal phone number written on the inside jacket too."

Korra knew it wasn’t so, but the tanned girl poorly argued, “She could have just written that down as a mistake.”

‘ _I’m in love with you, Miss Korra. Call me._ ’ Opal quoted and then smirked. “That ain’t no mistake, number two.”

With that, Korra blushed and abruptly changed the conversation by motioning to the pile of loot on the table beside her. "Anyway, Kya, here’s some more crap for you and that charity auction of yours next week."

Scanning the table, Kya thoughtfully observed, "You've never given me crap before, Korra, but I don't think we can use a box of chocolates and flowers that are going to wilt." She glanced at the last interesting item with one hand braced on her opposite arm, not quite knowing how to address it.

She appreciated Korra's enthusiastic and repeated help with her pet project more than words could express, but she couldn't accept this offering, and didn't want to offend her friend by refusing it. "A fur coat?"

The pretty southerner shrugged and offered in an upbeat tone. "Well, yeah, I'll never wear the poor critter, and I bet that you can get a lot of yuans for it." She picked up the end of one of the sleeves and demonstrated it to her friend. "See? It's brand new, has the tags still on it and everything." Korra grinned, swiping a hand down the coat to demonstrate its soft luxuriousness. "It’s a high quality item, so surely someone will want to bid on it, guaranteed!"

Kya pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger, attempting to digest the outrageous imagery that entered her mind as she asked incredulously, "You want me to hawk a fur coat at an auction being held to raise money towards the end of animal cruelty?"

The entire dressing room erupted in laughter and Korra clenched her teeth together while nervously rubbing the back of her neck, as she had not really thought of it from that aspect.

In the south, there was little agriculture to speak of, therefore hunting animals for food was necessary for survival. Where she and Kya were from, an interior decorator was called a taxidermist; and parts of animals from hunts that couldn’t be eaten by humans, if not thrown to the dogs, wound up stuffed and mounted on the wall, usually as a combination hat and spear rack.

Korra looked upwards as her voice trailed off. "Maybe you can display it to show people what they're fighting against if it wouldn’t sell?"

Kya’s face displayed the strangest look anyone had ever given Korra in her entire life, and Opal's atrociously loud laugh carried through the dressing area, and probably outside the closed door as well.

Finally, Kya gave a nod of approval at Korra's suggestion. "There might be something in that. Thanks, Korra, I'm sure it will help." Studying the items she wondered, "Well, I'm dying to know, whose heart have we made off with this time, Avatar?” Korra cut her eyes towards her friend with a murderous gleam. “Mover star, millionaire, musician," Smirking as their elder ended, Opal had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing right in Korra‘s face. " _More_ annoying royalty roaming the world incognito?"

Korra's lips pursed, and then informed with ill hidden annoyance, "No, no one like _that_." She moved to the table, studied the unopened chocolates sitting upon it and removed the ribbon holding the box closed. Flipping the lid open and offering the candy to her compatriots, Kya and the other women in attendance took a piece of chocolate, Opal two. In short order all the candy was nearly gone and Korra said humorously, "It was that older guy in business class a couple days ago; the one I said was probably married."

Kya announced with a mouth full of both sweets and disdain, " _Ewwww_! That creepy beta? The bald one with the glasses and gold chain in his ear and nose and attached to Gods only knows what else?"

"Yep!" Nodding affirmatively, Korra popped the rest of a salted caramel into her mouth and muttered, "That’s the one.”

Kya sighed. "Not that I can blame you this time, but since you never date the passengers, maybe you can find yourself a nice pilot here in house to ensnare and make your devoted love slave.” A playful warning, she pointed her index finger at her friend. “Hands off Lin though," Kya pronounced with beaming pride in her woman, "She's _mine_."

Despite the mild smack on the arm she earned from Kya, Opal laughed as Korra held up her hands in respect of the most mismatched union of souls she'd ever seen in her life. "She's _all_ yours."

Kya and Lin were like deer cats and eel hounds living together, impossible, but the conservative war hero and free-spirited hippie made their clashing personalities and viewpoints work, somehow parleying it into a relationship that didn’t have them killing each other at the end of the day.

Actually, it was hilariously entertaining to watch those two interact with each other.

Though they clashed quite frequently, though respectfully, over their conflicting views on politics and pretty much anything else going on in the world, Kya was unquestionably devoted to Lin.

For all of Lin’s bluster and her persona of the hardass alpha, it was rather adorable to see just how wrapped around Kya’s little finger Lin truly was, and despite her protests to the contrary, how much she relished it. Everyone needed someone, and for everything the pilot had been through in life, if anyone deserved to be happy, it was she, sometimes it seemed that Kya was the only thing that made Captain Beifong smile, other than talking about or flying planes.

"So," Korra wondered nonchalantly, glad to have the focus off her. "How's Lin doing?" Korra knew quite well how Captain Beifong was doing and what she was doing, but circumstances required her to play dumb. "We've all missed her since they changed her schedule; and we all know it's been doubly hard on you."

Kya's eyes lit with genuine happiness. "She called this morning to let me know she's back on our rotation as of today." She examined the timepiece on her wrist. "Her flight should be arriving any minute actually, and it's about time too. As you well know, she didn’t call me near as much as she usually does when our schedules conflict, and she’s been acting more weird lately if that‘s possible, and I want to know why." If Korra and Opal didn’t know the perfectly good reason why, both of them would have already found and throttled the pilot because Kya had run them nearly insane with talk of her. Kya threw up her hand. "It’s like she's not getting enough sleep again, or is up to something."

Opal grinned. "How can you tell?" Korra bit back a laugh at both Opal’s comment, and as Kya cut both of them a nasty look there was a knock at the door.

The door opened, then closed, and a dour older woman with a permanent frown affixed to her lips walked towards them. Coming from upper management and dressed in in attire not unlike theirs, but more conservative, she pulled a pen from her clipboard and sucked air through her teeth in disdain. "Alright, ladies, enough gossip and chit chat, time to go over the revised revisions of the duty roster for all outbound morning and afternoon flights."

Korra, Opal, and Kya along with the other women shared looks, some of them rolling their eyes, others checking their watches, counting the minutes until they could escape.

**Author's Note:**

> The Legend of Korra was created by Michael Dante Dimartino, Bryan Konietzko, and is owned by Viacom Inc. No infringement on their property is implied, nor should be inferred.
> 
> The title of this story comes from the song Jet Stream, composed by John Gregory and performed by John Gregory and his Orchestra. No infringement on his property is implied, nor should be inferred.
> 
> The title of this chapter comes from the instrumental Les Vacances d’Alexandre, composed by Vladimir Cosma and performed by the LAM Philharmonic Orchestra. No infringement on their property is implied, nor should be inferred.
> 
> Story inspired by the Smithsonian Channel's special program: "I Was a Jet Set Stewardess"


End file.
